What complete rubbish, there is heaps of quests and bonus series to complete that most people skip when levelling normally. You also don't need more than 2 action bars while levelling.

I think you must have quoted the completely wrong block of text, because what you are calling complete rubbish is all true. Please see the quote from Schubert regarding decreasing the rate at which F2P will earn XP.

If you are going to continue to harass me on these forums, please at least pay attention to what you are doing.

---------- Post added 2012-11-14 at 04:31 PM ----------

Originally Posted by Parrin

...the hell? Who are you and what have you done with hk-51?

He gave in and resubbed, so the SWTOR crack is flowing in his veins. I'll probably be there soon. He's still not advocating that this model is great, but hey...when you want to play, you want to play.

As shitty as the idealogy is for monetizing UI elements, his point is still valid. I'm pretty sure I could put everything I needed to raid even on 2 bars. If they had never relented and given everyone 2, I would've burned them to the ground. It's pretty troubling that they needed internet jockeys like us to tell them what a moronic idea it was.

From my experience I usually could skip most bonus series and even part of normal planet progressions and still reach 50 with plenty of Corellia left over (in one case even on Voss). So depending on how bad they nerf XP gains for F2P players it should still be doable.

As for two action bars ... A terrible decission on their part, but I think if leveling is all one wants to do it might work out.

Therefore despite being rather unhappy with some of the restrictions and the F2p model as a whole, I have to agree with HK-61 here, if leveling to 50 and experiencing the story is all you are after then it can probably work out.

Therefore despite being rather unhappy with some of the restrictions and the F2p model as a whole, I have to agree with HK-61 here, if leveling to 50 and experiencing the story is all you are after then it can probably work out.

And to be terribly honest, I can expect it to take a little longer to level as a F2P player as an industry standard. That's the whole reason why they have boosts and such out there. The only difference is this game has a hard wall once you reach the end, so maximizing the beginning and delaying the gratification for F2P players is an attempt to have a longer window to get money out of them.

It just is a little punishing to actually add extra time to the leveling process instead of making sure it stays at the flat lowest already possible. If other games do that, it's news to me, but I wouldn't agree with it any more.

If I want to pretend SWTOR is the KOTOR 3+ set of games that I will never get, and play it as a single player RPG, will F2P allow me to do just that? I'm not interested in Warzones, Flashpoints and anything else (I don't understand most of these terms anyway), just the ability to experience the story unhindered.

Yay or nay?

If you are playing JUST to see the story, I would give a resounding YES.

IF you were going to do anything else to play this as a "free to play" game, then no. They basically took the 1-15 free trial and extended it to 50.

I played SWTOR as if it were KOTOR3, completing the Jedi Knight story and feel I got my money's worth. It's a little more MMO type grindy gameplay than the KOTORs (some quests feel like fillers), which can detract a little from the experience, but it is also much bigger and polished (I loved KOTOR2, but polished it wasn't). The writing and voice acting is of single player game quality, very good SP game quality.

I started on the Sith warrior story and was intrigued, so may go back to free to play.

The 2 action bars is an annoyance though and leaves a bad taste in my mouth. At launch, the knight/warrior had a ton of keybinds in its rotation. I was struggling to fit everything into four (I remember the last ones I squeezed in were for my 2 relic on use abilities). And the interface is such that if you can't keybind or put an ability on an action bar, there's no way you're going to be using it in combat. Are they really going to restrict keybinding as well as the number of action bars? That's just mean.

Exp gain seemed to be about 25% slower when I was levelling my smuggler on the PTS. I didnt track it, it is just how it felt. As HK mentioned this isnt really a big deal. I remember doing my fair share of grinding for exp in WoW for example(I quit when they nerfed all content pre lich king so can't say how it is today). I still shudder at memories of EQ's "hell" levels.

To the OP yes it is very much worth it for the story. It is like someone handed you KOTOR 3 and 4 for free and gave you options to do more than the single player if you wanted, but don't require it.

It is worth it to me. I value the class storyline and overall levelling storyline to be equal to the cost of the game and its free month. Despite every other problem SWOTR had, I was satisfied with the experience. I might even go back and redo the levelling again now that its free.

I wouldn't recommend the game as anything more than a glorified online solo game.

I have been looking forward to this F2P since it was announced. I cannot wait to continue the storyline I began from 1-15. The story is the only thing I want to experience with F2P and I might spend a few dollars to upgrade the experience but that will be it. Looks like we will be able to level up to 50...I just hope BioWare didnt make it too uncomfortable and slow. I really want to see the rest of my characters' story.

Speaking of some of the restrictions, I am actually kinda willing to be a guinea pig here.

I think you can ignore quite a few restrictions, especially the field revival restrictions by simply grouping up.

i like to group up but some people just dont want to unless you give them a reason like a group quest or some rare which they can ninja the loot from.
i personally would like to know the race restrictions as id prefer human over the not so great looking alien races and dont care for racials and such id assume humans are the one thats always available but who knows

i personally would like to know the race restrictions as id prefer human over the not so great looking alien races and dont care for racials and such id assume humans are the one thats always available but who knows

They did say which ones would be open somewhere but I really don't remember where >< Human is definitely a race everyone can use though.

If I want to pretend SWTOR is the KOTOR 3+ set of games that I will never get, and play it as a single player RPG, will F2P allow me to do just that? I'm not interested in Warzones, Flashpoints and anything else (I don't understand most of these terms anyway), just the ability to experience the story unhindered.

Yay or nay?

As a F2P gamer you will have a blast. The 1-50 is great with varying degrees of how good the class stories are. (Mostly personal opinion on them really but they are all good)

You can treat the entire game from 1-50 as a solo experience (skipping all heroic group quests and miss very little if you want).

I have no doubt you'll be hooked enough to spend a minimum of $5 for preferred status and all the restrictions that are removed or lessened.

Yea I think that is right. I stopped myself from mentioning the others because I couldn't remember what the zabraks were called and would have had to do something silly like calling them "the pointy headed zebra guys".